The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1887-03-10
yressional directory could not be expected

J wards and said, apropos of the filings a
Georges profession:
''YOu are perhaps not aware that wa:
once in the newspaper field myself"
''All truly great men have started in thai
way" interrupted the representative of the
profession
''But those who are not truly great con
tinue where they start" suggested Gus
with pointedness that caused George Il
subsIde for a spell.
chad several years of newspaper work,
continued the member, land | count then
well spent years. l would not willingly
give up the experience of those years-tht
experience gained from observation, not
only OF the lives of other people that came
under my observation, but my own personal
experience, when | was breaking my way
into journalism, not as men come into il
nowadays, when it has become less Bohe.
milan and perhaps more respectable with q
bow to George, but competing for foot
ing with some of the brightest though at
the same time the most reckless, in their
personal habits and dealings, of the young
men of the day.
Journalism was not then what it has
| since bec0me-a business. There was some
| individuality about the work of newspaper
writers, and the ranks of the profession
were filed with men of whom the race
| seems to have almost died out. To Day,
your newspaper men are 4 Woodworking,
industrious class, men of standing, men of
responsibility and methodical habit Then
they We're free and easy, jolly, reckless
! set, who would make money easily and
| spend 1t just as easily; men who wonld
work by spells and make little money and
| unit nFaH 1DoF,
the day of Bethels, spend it lavishly while
| it lasted.
Circumstances threw me, early in life,
among newspaper workers, and the fasci-
nation which the profession cast over those
who adopt it early threw It's spell about me-
An opportunity offered 20 take place in a
| city some distance from my home on the
staff of recently established daily, one of
! those concerns which, twenty years ago,
/ were IS numerous as now. that spring Up in
| a day, flourish for a few weeks on the best
| WORK OF the brightest unattached writers
| in the community IN which they are started,
and fall through before they have reached
a half hundred issues. Soon l became d
| regular Bohemian, living from hand to
| mouth, as the majority of newspaper writ
| ers t''spacemen" they were nearly all of
! them in those days. were then doing, but
only to find myself. with half dozen Others
a. the END of six weeks, creditors of de-
| funct institution, that in dying had left no
assets upon which we could levy.
LAS the newspaper had never paid the
writers who made 1t, except in promises,
when it last gave up the ghost l had ex-
| hausted about all my resources and not a
great while afterwards the sheriff levied on
| the Office furniture. l found myself with
out cent and nothing in prospect
Imagine if you can my positioni l was
| comparatively a stranger in the city, and
had made but few friends and even from
these, sensltiveness or pride, l can hardly
tell which, induced me TO keep nv wants a
secret. Though l vainly sought employ
ment day after day, no one knew in what
desperate straits l was.
Il had quiet room in an obscure part of
the town, and there night after night |
labored to produce something that would
be accepted and paid for by the newspapers.
But always met with the same rebuff:
We have more more matter than We can
uSe'
"At length there came day when my
last cent was expended in the purchase of
frugal meal al cheap restaurant On
the morrow had nothing to eat, but kept
lutely made the accustomed rounds of the
Offices with the usual luck. At night, faint
with hunger, l crept back to nv lodgings,
feeling more solitary and friendless than
any mariner cast away on a desert island,
and gloomily enough, assure you, went
to bed and dreamed of sitting at a feast, but
without the power to touch an article of
food.
THE second day came and wandered
aimlesslythro the long and weary hours
of daylight with the half-formed hope that
perhaps some thing would somehow turn
up before night Bat, as might have been
expected, nothing did turn up, and, faint
with fOrty-eight hours want of food and
with desperate thoughts burning in my
brain, L once more sought my lodgings long
after midnight.
The third morning dawned and broke
into day and wore on into night, but kept
my room, too faint with hunger to move
about. After dark, which came early. for
it was in November, crept down the stairs
and out into the streets. Where | went
that night | have not the faintest idea.
There is in my mind a confused. horrible
recollection OF trudging up and down, past
more than one provision store where food
was displayed. hoping Tor, l don't know
what, favorable opportunity that might
occur which would enable me to procure
something to eat.
Furnished though l was, had not the
courage to beg. People talk of courage
usually in connection with some heroic
deed, but tell You it takes much greater
courage than | possess. and have been in
scenes of physical danger without knowing
fear, for one OF my disposition to beg
but, one by one, the lights went out; the |
stores closed Tor the night and nv last |
chance was gone. How reached my lodg- |
ings l don't remember, but when got there |
it was to throw myself dressed on the bed. |
10 fan into Ga uneasy sleep: the sleep of |
exhaustion, in which the tortures Of Tanta- |
lus were again endured as on the night |
before.
Morning at last came, and, strange to |
say, awoke without the slightest feeling
of hunger. was weak and could hardly |
summon the necessary energy to make nv |
toilet, but l did not feel the want of food. |
wandered out Of the house and this time
walked out into the country. where l sat
by the side of the road and dreamed away
the day with my eyes open.
THE only thought that was in nv mind
was that bitter one which comes with almost
unbearable yet irremediable loneliness. All
the events of my brief life passed in review
before my mind-my school DAYS. l lin
gered over them fondly. yet thought with
bitterness of the hopes and ambitions of nv
youth. l think L must hisse been crazed in
those hours, but L was cognizan. only of
these feelings OF bitterness and regret over
disappointed ambition and blasted hopes.
Out of my present difficulties could see no
path. Turn whittier would my way seemed
blocked, except IN one direction, and that to
nrn,na.ll q the Limb